News

At its June meeting in Montgomery, the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) awarded sixteen arts fellowships and one arts administration fellowship. Fellowships are awarded to individual artists based on merit of work, career achievement, professional development, and service to the state. This round of grants will support activity taking place between October 1, 2016, and September 30, 2017. Jacqueline Allen Trimble of Montgomery and Ash Parson of Auburn received Literary Arts Fellowships. READ MORE…

Novelist Mark Childress has told the tale before, but at the request of panel moderator Don Noble he told it again. The story goes something like this: When Antonio Banderas saw Speake, Alabama, native Lucas Black in the movie Sling Blade, he knew he had to cast the boy in his film adaptation of Childress’ book, Crazy in Alabama. Problem was, when Black arrived on set, no one—not Banderas, not leading lady Melanie Griffith—could understand his thick, northwest Alabama drawl. “I was essentially on set as Lucas’ interpreter,” said Childress, who also wrote the movie’s screenplay. READ MORE…

On June 3, the Department of Youth Services (DYS) dedicated the new treatment facility for girls in honor of former DYS Executive Director J. Walter Wood Jr. Wood was the longest serving state juvenile corrections executive in the United States when he retired on June 30, 2014. During his tenure as executive director of DYS, Wood implemented a number of juvenile justice reforms and improved treatment options for young offenders.